Samovar

Emil Filla might appear to be a well-known and frequently exhibited artist but from time to time previously undiscovered works appear, still awaiting their evaluation. This is the case here: we have before us a painting that in all respects represents Filla’s evolution at the beginning of one of his strongest artistic periods, which brought fundamental changes to the artist’s life. The months around 1913 were a crucial period for the artist, thanks in large part to his regular visits to Paris. In addition to a honeymoon with his wife Hana, a total of four further trips are recorded between 1912 and 1913, with Filla even planning to permanently relocate there. Thanks to close contact with the Czech politician and passionate art collector Vincenc Kramář, the artist could actively follow the evolution of Cubism and deepen his relationship with its leading representatives, Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque, making multiple visits to their studios. The works created in this intense, but short period of time show how deeply Filla managed to penetrate to the essence of the new artistic movement and, at the same time, revise both his previous theoretical point of departure, and his expressive register.

In the listed scene we can observe an expressive and formal transformation of Filla’s previous approach. He visibly clarified both the fundamental contrast in colours and the possibilities of accentuating them, and reassessed a previous Cubist painting created in 1912. As opposed to the dramatic and relatively complex monochrome oil painting from the previous year, here Filla asks the audience to understand the distinctive composition of Cubist shapes. He dismantled individual components into abstract geometric surfaces and planes that do not overlap, but create a complex structure concentrated on the central motif, i.e., a traditional vessel for preparing tea – a samovar – as indicated by the distinct fragments of a vessel with spiral handles on the sides and the spout at the bottom of the painting. This motif can also be found in the work of other avant-garde painters – in the Cubist canvases of Marc Chagall or Kazimir Malevich, for example. For Filla, though, an emphasis on monumentality was important. He built the still life with a firm structure like a vertical tower; it is compositionally compact, but also open in its flatness, which speaks to his new relationship to space. The sombre, Baroque chiaroscuro typical of this period is accented by the dominant blue element passing through the centre, which contrasts with the surrounding earth tones and shades of brown. It is interesting that the blue here is not an oil paint, but an industrial paint made from oil-based substances combined with artificial additives. The Cubists started to integrate the brand Ripolin, which gave this paint its name, into their paintings. Among other things, this approach reflects Filla’s effort to innovate and experiment with different techniques, from enamel to the expressive addition of sand to still-wet paint in later years. Another distinctive feature of the artist’s work is the use of large black areas, which appear consistently from the 1910s onwards, including in the period after World War II.

The listed work is an important find and represents a pivotal moment from the creative process that produced Filla’s specific Cubist style prior to his departure for the Netherlands. It is not just an example of a linear Cubist purism developed in immediate contact with its founders and initiators, but evidences the artist’s ability to integrate innovative European influences with a personal artistic approach bordering on abstraction. It also demonstrates that Filla had a number of deviations and turning points in his work, which confirm that even his Cubism was not confined to a single mode, and, at the same time, foreshadows his further development as a painter, which appeared in the 1920s.

It is not impossible that Filla exhibited the painting at the 18th exhibition of the Berlin gallery Der Strum, where he presented a larger set of 35 works and drawings (20 September – 1 November, 1913), or at the 20th exhibition at Der Sturm, where he exhibited three works (December 1913). The exhibited works were for sale and it is possible that Samovar was sold at one of these exhibitions. Between 1961 and 1975 the painting passed through Galleria Schwarz, an important Italian gallery of modern art (see the label with cat. no. 3510 on the stretcher bar). The canvas was also presented at the exhibition Origini dell'astrattismo verso altri orizzonti del reale, held at Milan’s Palazzo Reale from 18 October 1979 to 18 January 1980; it appears on p. 91 (repro. no. 377) of the exhibition catalogue published in 1979 by Silvana editoriale Milano. It now comes from an important international collection. The authenticity has been confirmed by the Filla Foundation and the painting will appear in a forthcoming inventory of the artist’s works. Assessed in consultation with Prof. J. Zemina a Mgr. T. Mátl Donné. The expert opinion of PhDr. K. Srp is attached: “[…] The painting is not only a great find, a significant contribution to Filla’s Cubist period, but also a strong, aesthetic experience, which demonstrates the reality that Cubism is the most important period in the art of the last century. [...].”